Menu and toolbar icons too small

[aljimenez]

VS 2018 does not have this tiny menu problem!

[titan3025]

According to Corel Support the new version is also not HiDPI compatible. I asked them if an upgrade would help and they said that with regards to the HiDPI issue on Surface devices they are still the same.

[aljimenez]

Hmmm... I have two systems, one with a 4K display which was terrible before VS 2018, and it is now great. My second system is a laptop from Dell, XPS13, with a 13inch very high res display that also works great with VS 2018 and never worked well prior to that. I don't think Microsoft Surface pc's are any different as far as high res displays. I think Corel support may be anaware of the fix?

Have you actually tried VS2018 and did not work?

BTW, both of my systems run Windows 10.

[titan3025]

I just downloaded the trial version and tried it. Still no HiDPI support in VS 2018. The UI is still as pixelated as in VS 10.5

[aljimenez]

If you would like some help, give more details. For example, your pc display specs, what OS, a picture of what you describe as pixelated would help.

I would have never described the issue with tiny menus for prior versions as "pixelated" and thus I think your problem is different than what this long thread has discussed.

[titan3025]

If you would like some help, give more details. For example, your pc display specs, what OS, a picture of what you describe as pixelated would help.

I would have never described the issue with tiny menus for prior versions as "pixelated" and thus I think your problem is different than what this long thread has discussed.

It is a Surface Pro 2017 with the latest Windows 10 OS. The tiny menus only appear if I turn of HiDPI compatibility. If I put it to system to that windows 10 tries to scale it to normal size it becomes apparent, that all the UI is made for low res displays. And when scaled up they are heavily pixelated. This is true for Videostudio 10.5 as well as for 2018.

[aljimenez]

Sorry that I don't have access to a Surface Pro. My laptop has an even higher res display than the Surface Pro details I have looked. Leaving all the display settings at default with respect to HiDPI, and not changing the new VS 2018 in Properties, I no longer get tiny menus, like I used to get with prior program versions. Same behavior in my desktop with a 4K display; it is very clearly different than old versions of VS. Please try leaving all display properties at defaut to see if it works. Maybe something is different about the Surface Pro.

[Kenneth Evans]

VS 2018 does not have this tiny menu problem!

I just bought VS 2018, motivated mostly by this statement. They have not fixed the hi-res DPI problem as you stated, as far as I can tell. It has the problem with small menus on my 4K screen, just the same as the previous versions. My screen is 3840 x 2160, 250%, 240 dpi.

It can be fixed by checking Override high DPI scaling behavior in compatibility mode for: System in the Compatibility tab of the shortcut as you suggested previously. However, I have checked and this does not give you 240 dpi. You get 96 dpi.

You seem to be wrong on both counts. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The only good thing is that this newer feature in the Compatibility tab eliminates having to use external manifests as discussed in the beginning of this thread.

[aljimenez]

I don't understand why I seem to have no issues with VS2018 in my 4K system, nor in my laptop with very high res display. I do not have to override high DPI scaling. BTW I use 350% text scaling in my system, maybe that's why it works?

I should just stick to reporting my experience and not conclude the problem is fixed for everyone, especially since Corel Support has told callers the problem is not fixed.

BTW, you can get a refund of your purchase if you don't want to keep VS2018

[Kenneth Evans]

I don't understand why I seem to have no issues with VS2018 in my 4K system, nor in my laptop with very high res display. I do not have to override high DPI scaling. BTW I use 350% text scaling in my system, maybe that's why it works?

I should just stick to reporting my experience and not conclude the problem is fixed for everyone, especially since Corel Support has told callers the problem is not fixed.

BTW, you can get a refund of your purchase if you don't want to keep VS2018

It might be the 350% scaling. I would guess the VS menus would be smaller than in other applications, if so.
You could try setting it temporarily to 250% (which is the suggested value for _my_ 4K display). The menus are uncomfortably small at that res for me.

It may be you are using the override through some means or another. The key is whether the app thinks it is running in 96 dpi or not. I know of some ways to determine this, but it would mean downloading something and running it.

You could try some way to see if an image in VS is being shown the same way in VS as it is in Photos, for instance, as I suggested earlier. This is easier said than done, and isn't as definitive as querying the parameters of the VS window.

As I said before I am also curious about what is happening and would be happy to help. In practice, it doesn't really matter, as VS is quite usable with the compatibility fix. The only real problem is having small menus and other interface elements as it is out of the box.

Getting a refund is not worth the effort. Even though I probably would not have upgraded now, I am sure there are other improvements.

[Kenneth Evans]

I also was making some statements without realizing the total picture.

When I originally installed VS 2018, it came up with small menus on my 4K screen out of the box.

I realize now that was because I still had the registry key PreferExternalManifest set to 1. (See some of the earlier posts in this thread.) The reason is that, unlike most applications, it comes with an external manifest, and that manifest has dpiAware=true set. It also has an internal manifest that doesn't mention dpiAware and so is DPI unaware. So with the registry key set, it used the external manifest saying it was DPI aware, and came up with the small menus that their bad implementation of DPI awareness gives. If I had not had the key set, it would have come up as DPI unaware and be running at 96 dpi. This is what would normally happen for a user that had not added the registry key and set it to 1.

I now have the key set to PreferExternalManifest=0, which is equivalent to its not being defined (how Windows comes out of the box and how it often gets set after a major update). The reason is that using Compatibility (in the Compatibility tab of Properties for the shortcut) set to Override high DPI scaling behavior set to System accomplishes the same thing and is far easier to implement.

With this arrangement, it comes up as DPI unaware out of the box and runs at 96 dpi. It does look a little pixelated, but is usable. If I set the Override high DPI scaling behavior to application, then it runs as DPI aware and has small menus, the same as I originally got. With it set to either System or System (Enhanced), it is DPI unaware, the same as not setting compatibility. (I have so far not noticed any difference for any application between System and System (Enhanced).)

Also with this arrangement, I tried setting the display to 350% instead of the recommended 250%. With anything but Override high DPI scaling behavior set to application, it works ok but has larger UI text items, as one would expect. My icons on the desktop are also larger.

The interesting thing is that with Override high DPI scaling behavior set to application, then the menus are still small. The text is large and doesn't fit where it should. It is really bad for me this way.

I am now back to having PreferExternalManifest=0, and using either Override high DPI scaling behavior set to system or not set.

So those are my observations. I will also not draw conclusions for other people any more.

To summarize, as it comes out of the box it is DPI unaware and runs at 96 dpi no matter if your screen resolution is higher. You can try it with Override high DPI scaling behavior set to application to see if you like that better.

As stated before, they should fix it so it runs at high DPI with correct menus and other interface elements.

[aljimenez]

Thank you for reporting your excellent experience with every forum member. I really appreciate it.